Contestant Number Two…

December 16, 2016, Friday, Manila, Philippines at the Broadway Centrum; the most awaited day for the fans of the Electric Guitar Heroes; Blaster Silonga, Fender Dimalanta, Luis Galang, and Angelo Garcia. It was the qualifying round for Eat Bulaga’s segment, Music Heroes’ Grand finals.

Hi I’m Jeriah Bautista or Ate Jai. I am an admin of Blaster Silonga’s official fans club, Blasterrifics.

I woke up at 4 o’clock in the morning to prepare myself for Blaster’s performance at Eat Bulaga. His mom, Ate Tess, my sister in lifegroup, told me that we should leave exactly 6 in the morning to avoid traffic because Blaster’s call time is 8AM and we’re gonna be coming from their house at Marikina City. Well, we left 7AM. Feeling sleepy and tired for 4 hours sleep, I went to their house and ended up waking the Silonga siblings up. While waiting for Blaster to finish preparing, we couldn’t stop talking about how nervous we are on what’s going to happen. Even I couldn’t explain what I’m feeling. Early that morning the Lord reminded me of His word that WE ARE FAVORED and every time we say how nervous we are, we never stop reminding each other that WE ARE FAVORED. Win or lose, we are favored! My Blasterrifics group chat was at its noisiest point early that morning that made me more nervous, thinking.. is this the last time that we’re gonna see Blaster on TV? Is this the last time that we’re gonna be getting to know each other and so much more things that I don’t even want to imagine that would happen.

On our way to Broadway, the usual Friday traffic was not seen anywhere where we traveled, we were fooling around but what we were just thinking was, we are favored. We arrived at Broadway exactly at 8 in the morning. The moment that we step out of the car, some of the people outside already knew Blaster and said Hi. Arriving at the dressing room, the majority of us wants to eat on a fast food and so we went for a walk on the nearest Jollibee. Before we eat, we did a small prayer both for the food and for Blaster’s competition. In faith, we declared, we are favored.

Going back to Broadway, crowd started to build up and the heavy feeling started to increase. The beats of our heart is getting faster, our prayer is getting stronger. Ate Tess told me, “Parang yung puso ko, kinikiliti na ewan” and the funny thing is when Blaster went beside me, I asked him if he was nervous, he said the same thing his mom said. I hugged my little brother and said that HE IS FAVORED.

While the crowd is getting bigger, a commotion on the stage started to build up, Blaster’s effects was grounded. Ate Tess rushed to Blaster and I following her asked what’s happening and started to pray for the whole set and let the Lord move. That time, I knew that it was going to be a great fight.

Before the show started, I have had a small problem. I got 9 Blasterrifics outside and Ter only have 5 slots for music hero. I honestly did not know what to do but what happened was one of the music heroes lend his 4 extra slots to us. Again, we knew, we are favored! Thank you Angelo Garcia!

Before Eat Bulaga started, I went outside and get the banners that someone made for Blaster, it was a lot! Again, we are favored.

Blaster Silonga and Angelo Garcia were the first Electric Guitar Heroes to go live and battle for a slot in the finals. Blaster was the first to play. The piece that he used was the same piece from semi finals, Through the Fire. It was just the opening act of the Electric Guitar Heroes. The category that was  chosen for that day was Aegis’ Greatest Hits and Blaster’s piece was the all time videoke favorite, Basang Basa Sa Ulan. Angelo played the hit song, Halik. Crowd has gone wild while Blaster is performing his heart out, you could also see a lot of banners from the crowd stating his name. Blaster, wearing his signature animal print outfit and new red violet highlights looks so stunning both live and on television. I was also all out in shouting giving cheers to him not realizing I had too much exposure on the television for that. Well, they told me to shout, so I did! Going back, after his performance, listening to the judges’ comments, it was very unpredictable. Both were awesome musicians, both have skills, both have guts and that made me much more nervous. I asked my seatmate, “mananalo kaya si Blaster?” and he answered at its confidence, “Bakit naman hindi?” – that moment, I prayed, I thanked God for the good fight. People may say that it’s weird that I’m too nervous for it but my sister’s battle, my brother’s battle, is also my battle.

The Twitter party with the hashtag #EBClashOfGuitarHeroes was spreading seeing a lot of Blaster Silonga on tweets!

While on commercial breaks, my heart was full of joy when some girls seating way up at Broadway keeps on shouting “Blaster” and we knew more Blasterrifics are coming. Exciting!

Commercial break ended, the winner is now going to be announced. Ryan Agoncillo announced the winner like this, I was really excited and nervous but I continue to pray. Ryan started, “And the Electric Guitar Hero for today is….. Contestant number…..” I was so nervous, my heart was beating so fast. “Contestant Number TWO!” silence from Blasterrifics was heard. We were looking at each other with sadness in the eyes. Banners were slowly laid down. Confusion was on my face and my heart. Then I heard “Congratulations Blaster Silonga and Angelo Garcia!” I was like “WHAT?! IS IT A TIE? I THINK IT’S A TIE!” then one of the fans of Angelo Garcia said that yes, it was a tie! I was jumping with joy! It was one of the craziest day that I have ever had! That moment I shouted “Thank you Lord! I know that WE ARE FAVORED”

After winning, huge number of people went to Blaster to ask for his photo. We were already being kicked out by the guard but that didn’t stop the fans. The day ended with Blaster taking photos with the new fans and the whole Blasterrifics.

When we were at the car, I asked him why is that your reaction when you heard the winner, Blaster has no reaction when the winner was announced, he then said “Hindi ko kasi alam kung anong number ako”

~ end